Chaper 2: Hands and eyes

 

The drawings were done in my sketchbook (A5) on various sorts of lightweight sketching paper.

5.2.1 Drawing in an outline of the hand

	B3 pencil
5.2.2 Hand drawings
	3B pencil.  I looked at my hand through a sheet of transparent plastic with aid lines to get the initial points in the right place. The horizontal and vertical lines are still visible.
	Details drawn with pencil on an old letter coated with gesso.
	A sketch after a da Vinci painting and my own hand (difficult position for the hand). Also with 3B pencil
	Drawing on gessoed letter with a B pencil
Design with hand shape I made a template from the first sketch.
	17x22,5 cm Overlapping outlines, painted with watercolours on a leftover piece of map goated with gesso. The lines of the map are still shining through.
	A4 Hand shapes, one of them filled in with ornaments, done with permanent ink and calligraphy pen on 160g cartridge paper. The ornaments seem to indicate the wrinkles and lines on my hand.
	The above drawing painted with watercolours.
Scan of the ornament hand shape,	moved around on the computer with Paint.
	Variations done with Picasa
	A cutout print of the ornamented hand and a cutout from a monoprint with a Gelli plate, glued on decorated papers from a former module.

 

Eyes

5.2.3 Collection of portraits with eyes as a powerful feature

I found a lot of portraits in my art books and made scans, here are some of them. The range of expressions conveyed by the eyes is amazing!

	Leonardo da Vinci: Portrait of Ginevra Benchi
	Girl in a dark jacket by Lucian Freud, 1947
	Self-portrait in uniform (detail) by Egon Schiele, 1916
	Detail in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo All the figures in this painting seem to be awed, afraid or overwhelmed.
	Annetta Giovanni Giacometti, 1908/10
	Portrait Dora Maar, sitting in a chair (detail) Picasso, 1938 I like the way the right eye is looking back at the left.

 

5.2.4 Drawing my own eyes

My friend Ilona took a couple of portrait photographs (thanks, Ilona!), which I used for drawing. It is a bit stressful for my eyes to draw looking into a mirror. The drawings are mostly done in my sketchbook (A5). 

	The first sketch with a B pencil, always good for exploring. After the shock of seeing exactly all these wrinkles I was intrigued by the half-moon shadows at the top of the irises.
	Ballpoint pen I was so focussed on the medium – no corrections possible - that I neglected the correct position of the eyes. Looks like a lemur.
	Staring in the mirror with my glasses on. Conte Carré stick invites a more spontaneous line.  Also I cannot see so many details this way.
	8B pencil, drawn from another photograph. Would you believe I am grinning? The nose is not right.
The same photograph drawn with a sketching pen and water soluble ink on 190g very smooth cartridge paper, A5.	Water brushed on and dabbed away for lighter and deeper shades. I like the result, it is less exact and more vivid.